Worries for Tomorrow or the Lemming Delimma

Who is going to pay for Groceries, Homes, Clothing and the Entertainment needed to keep the masses amused and out of trouble when the American People completely outnumber the Jobs to be found? This is a question that should be on every persons mind. How close are we to saturation? How does Immigration, both legal and illegal affect this situation?

If we look at a parallel in history, the Roman Empire, we would see a similar situation. Granted there were differences, but they were minor really and to keep this short I won’t go into them.

Population was a major Roman problem once the Empire was formed and the regular induction of client states happened. This was a boon and a bane of the Empire, it provided money in the form of Loot and Tribute from the new client state, as well as providing workers and slaves for Rome. For a while this was great and Rome grew, but eventually it becomes cheaper to buy Slaves (although you have to feed and house them) or even better to pay low wages (cheaper than keeping a slave) to an immigrant from a client state. After all they had to worry about feeding, housing and clothing themselves, who cares if they die where as a slave was an investment to be kept healthy enough to get a return on.

Population is becoming a problem for American as well, between immigration, both legal and illegal as well as natural born citizens we are seeing an increase in workers with a decrease in the number of jobs. Although this may seem odd, since if you increase the number of people it would seem likely you would also have to increase the number of services and food production (extremely simplified version), it would seem like they should balance. This is less true on a daily basis due to technology.

Technology is a force multiplier for everything. Two hundred years ago, it took a large crew of men and animals to plow, plant and harvest a couple hundred acres of grains, today a Farmer and a couple of hands with a tractors can plow, plant and harvest thousands of acres in the same amount of time. Two hundred years ago, harvesting a tree was brutal and back breaking with an Axe, Hand Saw and a Mule team; today it is five minutes with a Chainsaw and Dragline. I won’t even go into Textiles, Mining, Shipping or Transportation.

So what did the Romans do? Go read about the Games, the Frontier and the sacking of Rome if you want to know, also ask where the Roman Empire is today. The real question is what are we going to do tomorrow and the day after and the day after that, ad infinitum.

Perhaps the Lemmings have the ultimate solution... The cliff is that way, as for me, I call the roll of Traffic Director.